Tucson is Arizona’s second-largest city and the economic and cultural heart of southern Arizona, with a workforce anchored by the University of Arizona — one of the state’s largest employers — major military installations including Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, a significant healthcare sector, tourism and hospitality, and a growing technology and aerospace industry. The Tucson estate planning market reflects the city’s distinctive demographic makeup — combining University of Arizona faculty and administrators with complex deferred compensation and intellectual property planning needs, military retirees with specific benefit-related considerations, established Tucson business families with multigenerational real estate and ranching wealth, a significant retiree population drawn by Tucson’s extraordinary climate, and the growing professional community that Tucson’s expanding economy has attracted.
Arizona provides one of the most favorable estate planning environments in the western United States. Arizona imposes no state estate tax or inheritance tax — making it one of the most tax-favorable states for wealth transfer. Arizona’s Trust Code provides a modern and flexible trust administration framework. Arizona’s community property system — treating assets acquired during marriage as equally owned by both spouses — creates important planning opportunities that distinguish Arizona estate planning from planning in common law property states, providing Arizona married couples with significant income tax advantages through stepped-up basis treatment of community property assets. The Arizona Durable Power of Attorney Act, Arizona’s healthcare directive statutes, and the Arizona Probate Code together create the legal framework within which Tucson estate planning attorneys serve their clients.
1. Michael Bresnehan — Raven Fox and Olmstead PLLC
- Address : 1250 Sussex Turnpike G, Mt Freedom, NJ 07970, United States
- Phone : +19733064000
Michael Bresnehan is one of Tucson’s most highly regarded estate planning and trust administration attorneys, with a practice at Raven Fox and Olmstead that has served Southern Arizona families in comprehensive estate planning, trust administration, business succession planning, and estate and gift tax planning for many years. Bresnehan has been recognized by Super Lawyers Arizona in estate planning and probate for multiple consecutive years and has been included in Best Lawyers in America — reflecting sustained peer recognition from Arizona’s legal community for the consistent quality and sophistication of his estate planning counsel.
Bresnehan’s practice encompasses the full range of Arizona estate planning services — revocable living trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney, healthcare powers of attorney, living wills, irrevocable trusts, and sophisticated wealth transfer strategies including irrevocable life insurance trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts, and charitable planning structures. His mastery of the federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax framework provides Tucson families with comprehensive tax-efficient wealth transfer planning that maximizes wealth available for transfer across multiple generations.
His particular expertise in Arizona community property planning — leveraging the unique planning opportunities created by Arizona’s community property system, including the strategies that maximize the stepped-up income tax basis available to surviving spouses on community property assets and the specific Arizona planning tools that optimize wealth transfer for married couples — reflects Arizona-specific knowledge that attorneys practicing in common law property states cannot provide. His deep familiarity with the University of Arizona employment context — including the specific planning considerations that arise from Arizona Board of Regents employment agreements, university deferred compensation plans, and the academic intellectual property and royalty income that faculty researchers generate — provides Tucson’s large university employment community with planning counsel specifically tailored to their distinctive circumstances.
2. Stephanie Ziel — Ziel Estate Law
Stephanie Ziel is a highly regarded Tucson estate planning and elder law attorney whose practice focuses on comprehensive estate planning, Arizona Medicaid planning for long-term care, special needs planning, and trust administration for Pima County and Southern Arizona families. Ziel has been recognized by Super Lawyers Arizona in estate planning and probate and has developed a reputation for combining comprehensive Arizona estate planning expertise with specialized elder law knowledge — providing Tucson families with integrated planning that addresses both wealth transfer objectives and the practical realities of aging and long-term care.
Ziel’s practice encompasses revocable and irrevocable trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney, healthcare powers of attorney, living wills, special needs trusts, Arizona Long Term Care System Medicaid planning, and trust administration. Her particular expertise in ALTCS planning — navigating the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System’s complex eligibility rules for long-term care coverage under Arizona’s Medicaid managed care system — reflects specialized knowledge of one of the most practically consequential planning areas for Tucson’s substantial and growing senior population. Tucson’s long-term care costs for nursing facility and assisted living care can reach several thousand dollars per month, making ALTCS planning strategies that preserve family assets critically important for Southern Arizona families planning for potential long-term care needs.
Her particular strength in special needs trust planning — creating Arizona-compliant supplemental needs trusts that preserve eligibility for ALTCS, SSI, and other government benefit programs while providing supplemental financial support for beneficiaries with physical or intellectual disabilities — reflects critical expertise for Tucson families whose estate planning must account for a family member’s disability. Her genuine accessibility to Southern Arizona families across economic backgrounds reflects a commitment to making quality estate planning available to every Tucson family that needs it.
3. Robert Fleming — Fleming and Curti PLC
Robert Fleming is one of Arizona’s most nationally distinguished estate planning and elder law attorneys, with a practice at Fleming and Curti in Tucson that has served Arizona families in comprehensive estate planning, trust and estate administration, special needs planning, and elder law for decades. Fleming has been recognized by Super Lawyers Arizona in estate planning and probate for many consecutive years and has been included in Best Lawyers in America — reflecting the sustained national recognition that comes from consistently excellent Arizona estate planning and elder law practice over a distinguished career.
Fleming’s particular national reputation in special needs trust law — reflected in his widely read blog on special needs and elder law topics that has attracted a national following among attorneys and families navigating disability-related estate planning — represents a level of specialized expertise in special needs trust planning that places him among the most knowledgeable practitioners in this specific area anywhere in the country. His decades of special needs trust drafting, trust administration, and beneficiary advocacy provide Tucson families with specialized representation that reflects exceptional mastery of one of the most legally complex and practically consequential areas of estate planning.
His firm Fleming and Curti’s long history as one of Tucson’s most respected estate planning and elder law practices — combined with Fleming’s national reputation in special needs law — provides Southern Arizona families with access to estate planning counsel that reflects exceptional depth of expertise in the most technically demanding estate planning contexts available anywhere in Arizona.
4. Jennifer Green — Green Estate Planning Group
Jennifer Green is a Tucson estate planning attorney whose practice focuses on comprehensive estate planning, business succession planning, and wealth preservation strategies for Southern Arizona families and the Tucson business community. Green has developed a reputation for combining thorough Arizona estate planning expertise with genuine personal engagement — providing each Tucson client with individualized counsel that addresses their specific family circumstances, business interests, and wealth transfer objectives rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach to estate planning.
Her practice encompasses revocable and irrevocable trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney, healthcare powers of attorney, living wills, business succession planning structures, and charitable giving strategies — providing comprehensive estate planning services for Tucson families across different wealth levels and planning complexity. Her particular expertise in estate planning for Tucson’s military community — addressing the specific planning considerations that arise from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base employment, military Survivor Benefit Plan elections, Thrift Savings Plan beneficiary designations, VA benefits planning, and the interaction between military survivor benefits and broader estate planning documents — reflects specialized knowledge of the most distinctive estate planning context for a significant segment of the Tucson community.
Her particular attention to the planning needs of Tucson’s growing aerospace and defense industry community — addressing the specific estate planning considerations that arise from aerospace and defense company employment agreements, security clearance-related employment considerations, defense industry equity compensation, and the career mobility patterns that characterize defense industry employment — reflects locally relevant expertise that serves Tucson’s growing and increasingly important aerospace sector.
5. David Streich — Streich Law Firm
David Streich is a Tucson estate planning and charitable planning attorney whose practice focuses on comprehensive estate planning, charitable giving strategies, and trust administration for Tucson families and the Southern Arizona philanthropic community. Streich has built a practice that combines comprehensive Arizona estate planning with specialized expertise in the charitable planning strategies that serve Tucson’s active philanthropic community — reflecting Southern Arizona’s tradition of cultural, educational, and environmental philanthropy anchored by the University of Arizona, the Tucson Museum of Art, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and the many community foundations that serve Pima County’s charitable sector.
His practice encompasses revocable and irrevocable trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney, healthcare powers of attorney, living wills, charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, private foundations, and donor-advised fund planning. His particular expertise in environmental and conservation easement planning — providing planned giving counsel that incorporates conservation easements on Tucson and Southern Arizona’s extraordinary desert and ranch lands into comprehensive estate plans that simultaneously accomplish estate tax reduction, income tax planning benefits, and permanent land conservation objectives — reflects specialized knowledge of one of the most distinctive charitable planning contexts in Tucson’s environmentally conscious community.
Frequently Asked Questions: Estate Planning in Tucson, AZ
Q: Does Arizona impose a state estate tax that affects Tucson residents?
A: No. Arizona does not impose a state estate tax or inheritance tax, making it one of the most tax-favorable states for wealth transfer. Tucson residents only need to address the federal estate tax, and the current substantial federal exemption means that the vast majority of Arizona families will not owe any estate tax regardless of the size of their estates.
Q: How does Arizona’s community property system benefit Tucson married couples?
A: Arizona’s community property system treats assets acquired during marriage as equally owned by both spouses, creating significant estate planning advantages. Community property receives a full stepped-up income tax basis at the death of either spouse — meaning that appreciated community property assets can be sold by the surviving spouse without capital gains taxes on appreciation that occurred during the marriage. This benefit is substantially more valuable than what common law property states provide, making community property planning an important component of comprehensive Arizona estate plans for Tucson married couples.
Q: What is ALTCS and how does it affect Tucson estate planning?
A: ALTCS — the Arizona Long Term Care System — is Arizona’s Medicaid program for long-term care services, providing nursing facility and home and community-based care for eligible Arizona residents who meet income and asset eligibility requirements. Planning to qualify for ALTCS while preserving family assets is one of the most important elder law planning considerations for Tucson families facing potential long-term care costs. Experienced Tucson estate planning attorneys who understand ALTCS’s complex eligibility rules can help families structure assets and income to maximize ALTCS eligibility while preserving wealth for surviving spouses and heirs.
Q: What estate planning documents should every Tucson adult have?
A: Every Tucson adult should have at minimum a will, a durable power of attorney for financial decisions, a healthcare power of attorney authorizing someone to make medical decisions during incapacity, and a living will expressing end-of-life care preferences. Most Tucson families with real property or significant financial assets should also have a revocable living trust to avoid Arizona probate and provide for efficient asset management during any period of incapacity before death.
Q: How should University of Arizona employees approach estate planning differently?
A: University of Arizona employees face specific estate planning considerations including planning around Arizona State Retirement System benefits and survivor election options, Optional Retirement Plan investment account beneficiary designations, deferred compensation plan distributions, potential academic intellectual property royalty income streams, and the specific income tax treatment of university retirement benefits. Experienced Tucson estate planning attorneys who understand the University of Arizona employment benefit framework can help faculty and staff coordinate these benefits with their broader estate plans to maximize wealth transfer efficiency.
